 | Get all the essential market news and expert opinions in one place with our daily newsletter. Receive a comprehensive recap of the day's top stories directly to your inbox. Sign up here! |
(Kitco News) - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is now looking to make his mark in the world of cryptocurrencies and digital identity with the launch of the Worldcoin (WLD) token on Monday as part of a system designed to provide a digital ID for users around the world and help differentiate between humans and machines.
Worldcoin was first launched in October 2021 by co-founders Alex Blania, Sam Altman and Max Novendstern as a project focused on using eye scans to create a unique digital identity for individuals.
Scans produce numbers that can be tied to a user’s identity, and no record of the scan is kept, which helps prevent theft and fraud. To entice people to go through the process, Worldcoin (WLD) was offered as a reward.
“More than three years ago, we founded Worldcoin with the ambition of creating a new identity and financial network owned by everyone; the rollout begins today,” Balina and Altman wrote in a letter introducing WLD. “If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI.”
Funding for the project was provided by a variety of VC firms, including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, 1confirmation, Blockchange and Day One Ventures. At its launch in 2021, Worldcoin was valued at $1 billion.
The Worldcoin ecosystem operates as a layer-two on the Ethereum blockchain. In March, the team behind the project announced the launch of the World ID software, a privacy-first decentralized identity protocol that allows end users to generate their “World ID.”
According to the Worldcoin website, World ID “enables seamless sign-in to websites, mobile apps and crypto dapps, while proving you’re a unique and real person without sharing personal data like names, emails, etc.”
“One way to think about World ID is as a global digital passport that lives locally on its holder’s phone,” Worldcoin said. “World ID’s most important property is that the holder can use it to prove that they are a real and unique person without sharing personal data using zero-knowledge proofs.”
Users have access to multiple “personhood verification” options including phone number verification “for easy access to anyone with a smartphone and Orb biometric verification for extreme accuracy.” Orb is a custom hardware iris imaging device created by ToolsForHumanity that scans the irises of users to produce their unique identifier.
As part of the WLD token launch, Worldcoin is also looking to expand Orb locations to “35+ cities in 20+ countries across five continents” by the end of 2023.
Worldcoin said that World ID will provide a way for users to prove they are not robots without needing to provide personal identifying information to websites, such as their phone numbers.
Worldcoin has also announced the launch of a waitlist for its “World ID” software development kit (SDK), which allows websites to verify the humanity and uniqueness of their users without storing their personal information.
|
| EU taps Protokol to develop blockchain-based credential verification system |
The Worldcoin Foundation subsidiary World Assets Ltd. is responsible for minting and releasing the Worldcoin token to the millions of eligible users who participated in the beta, and WLD is now live on the blockchain.
“In the age of AI, the need for proof of personhood is no longer a topic of serious debate; instead, the critical question is whether or not the proof of personhood solutions we have can be privacy-first, decentralized and maximally inclusive,” said Blania. “Through its unique technology, Worldcoin aims to provide anyone in the world, regardless of background, geography or income, access to the growing digital and global economy in a privacy-preserving and decentralized way.”
“If successful, Worldcoin’s global decentralized identity and financial network could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable and privacy-preserving way to distinguish humans from AI online, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path for AI-funded universal basic income (UBI),” Worldcoin said.
According to a statement released by Worldcoin on July 14, the project has already surpassed 2 million user sign-ups, and Altman tweeted that he has a goal of increasing this number to 2 billion.
Numerous cryptocurrency exchanges have already added support for WLD, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, Gate, Huobi, and KuCoin. On its first day of trading, WLD is up 33.83% and trading at a price of $2.23, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
